September 27 - October 4, 2024 | |
"I will put my teaching in their minds and write it on their hearts..."
Jeremiah 31:33
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Calendar of Upcoming Events | |
Below are the weekly programs. You can find brief descriptions of these weekly programs on our website. Clickable links are in blue and italicized. | |
SUNDAY Choir Practice, 9 am in person, Sanctuary
Contact Tom Ludwig, if interested NO practice 9/29
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Below are the upcoming non-weekly events on the calendar happening at McFarland UCC for about the next month. All events are on the McFarland UCC calendar with Zoom links and additional information in the details/description area. Click the event on the McFarland UCC calendar to see the details. | |
Friday, September 27, 7:00 - 9:00 pm, Fall Equinox & Fire Ceremony with Jessica Riphenburg, Outdoor Firepit
Tuesday, October 1, 6:30 - 8:00 pm, Racial Justice Care Team Monthly Meeting, (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
Wednesday, October 2, 6:30 - 8:30 pm, Befrienders Training, (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
Thursday, October 3, 6:30 - 8:30 pm, Justice & Peace in Palestine (In person & Online), Sanctuary
Sunday, October 6, 10:00 am, Birthday, Communion, Worship & Neighbors in Need Collection Sunday
Sunday, October 6, 5:30 - 7:00 pm, Teen Youth Monthly Meeting
Wednesday, October 9, 6:30 - 7:30 pm, Healing Prayer Service (In person & Online), Sanctuary
Wednesday, October 9, 6:30 - 8:30 pm, NO Befrienders Training
Thursday, October 10, 6:00 - 8:00 pm, SaLT Monthly Meeting, (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
Sunday, October 13, 5:30 - 6:45 pm, Monthly Younger Youth Meeting
Wednesday, October 16, 7:30 - 9:00 pm, Befrienders Training, (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
Thursday, October 17, 6:30 - 8:00 pm, Creation Care Team Meeting, (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
Wednesday, October 23, 7:30 - 9:00 pm, Befrienders Training-last class, (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
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News at McFarland UCC
(Note: Clickable links are blue and italicized.)
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Fall Equinox Fire Ceremony with Jessica Riphenburg
TONIGHT (9/27), 7-9 pm
We hope you’ll join us for this unifying, unique Fall Equinox Fire Ceremony.
Pastor Bryan Sirchio and I (Jessica Riphenburg of Be The Light) will weave our spiritual views and practices into this healing, uplifting ceremony around the outdoor fire pit.
BRING:
🔥Rattle, shaker, or drum if you have one. A bottle with pebbles, dried beans, etc works well too! I’ll have many shakers for you to borrow if you don’t have one of your own.
🔥Camping chair
🔥Warm layers and/or blanket
🔥OPTIONAL: a pen and journal
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Stewardship Update
During the Sept. 29, 10 am worship service, Kathy Schwenn, treasurer, will provide a stewardship update of transactions through 8/31/2024. If there are any questions, please contact Kathy. Slides are also on the website.
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Postcard Writing Campaign to "Get Out the Vote"
MUCC is partnering with Reclaim Our Vote*, a campaign of the Center for Common Ground, to encourage under-represented voters to vote. We will send 500 postcards by mid-October to people of color in South Carolina and Texas who are registered to vote but have not voted in the past couple of election cycles.
After Sunday services you are invited to write postcards, following a template provided to us by Reclaim Our Vote. We will have postcards, pens, markers, and the script on the tables outside the sanctuary for anyone interested in writing a few postcards.
These handwritten postcards have an impact on the people who receive them. We understand that information is power, and we work to empower voters. Join us!
*Reclaim Our Vote is a grassroots, volunteer-run campaign that focuses on increasing BIPOC voter turnout through post-carding, texting, and phone banking. Through our get-out-the-vote work, we provide early voting locations and times, voter registration deadlines, information for free rides to the polls, and phone numbers for county election officials.
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Thank You
Russ St Clair wanted to pass along this thank you email received from Aaron Tarnutzer, McFarland School District Administrator.
"I am reaching out with a belated thank you for your leadership with the important "Stuff the Bus Campaign!" Through your leadership as well as the hard work and generosity of so many you were able to provide over 60 children with needed school supplies. The students were able to start the school year having what they need for a successful start! This is so important, especially given these difficult financial times."
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Justice and Peace in Palestine
Thursday, October 3, 6:30-8:30 pm!
(In person & on zoom)
https://zoom.us/j/97010988439
Password: betogether
Harriet Taylor and Andrea Burgard will be in town this coming week! Harriet is a member of the Wisconsin Conference UCC Palestinian Justice Taskforce, and justice and peace for Palestinians (and all people) has been a passionate concern of hers for many years. Harriet will lead us in a presentation focusing on "Justice and Peace in Palestine." Harriet will share an overview of the history of the conflict and lead us in a Q&A and discussion time.
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Neighbors in Need Collection - October 6 | |
Weekly Creation Care Tips
Reduce/Reuse/Recycle
This week’s Tip: Reduce: According to National Geographic, about nine million tons of plastic are thrown into the ocean annually, which breaks down to one garbage truck full of plastic being dumped into the sea every minute. The average person (not Bryan nor Geoff) will use 16 bottles of shampoo each year. Shampoo bars cut out the need for plastic bottles, most come wrapped in recycled paper or in paper boxes. They’re also convenient for traveling (no TSA liquid limit hassle). While a shampoo bar may seem to cost more up front, know that liquid shampoos are 80% water, that means that a bar which is concentrated will out last 2-3 bottles of liquid shampoo, saving you money AND the environment.
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A Few Words from Pastor Bryan
...and J.D. Vance?
As most of you know, I’ve been working closely with people in the country of Haiti for over 35 years now, and I have a deep love and respect for Haiti as a nation and for the people of that amazing country. Like every nation and culture on earth, Haiti has its unique gifts to offer and its unique challenges to face.
Since I’ve written and recorded songs about my experiences in Haiti and founded the nonprofit organization “Haiti Allies” (www.haitiallies.org) almost 25 years ago and raised millions of dollars over the years in support of some of the most vulnerable people in Haiti, whenever Haiti is in the news, people tend to contact me and ask me what I think. And that has been the case recently since J.D. Vance and former president Trump started spreading the lies (sorry—I’m not going to mince words here) about Haitian immigrants eating people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio. J.D. Vance has admitted that he made this up in order to draw attention to the large number of Haitian immigrants in Springfield. I appreciate his finally acknowledging that he fabricated this story, and if drawing attention to the fact that there is a large population of Haitian immigrants in Springfield, OH was his intention, he succeeded.
So here’s just a few initial and very brief thoughts about this as a follower of Jesus, as a minister of the Gospel, and as a person who has deep respect for Haitians and for the issue of immigration in general.
First, I don’t appreciate being lied to, and I don’t appreciate lies that deliberately disparage and endanger a group of people who are already very vulnerable and facing great challenges. Jesus referred to “Satan” (and the word satan literally means “the accuser”) as the “father of lies.” That alone is reason for us to pause and think deeply about the use of lies for political reasons. Especially those that accuse another group of people of doing something harmful to the common good. And I’m under no illusion that lying for political purposes only happens on the republican side of political tickets, or that all of us don’t wrestle with being fully truthful at times. But I don’t want “making stuff up to make a point”—you know—lying—to be normalized in the political process. And to state the obvious, it has been. Moreso in the past decade than ever.
Jesus said the "the Truth will make us free" (John 8:32). One of the most dangerous things going on in our country and in the world right now is that we are in what can only be referred to as an absolute crisis when it comes to our ability to discern what is or is not the truth. We are being lied to and “gaslit” from so many different directions that we are losing the capacity to discern what is and is not “real.” This is extremely dangerous, and the deliberate use of falsehood to demonize and target a vulnerable group of people for partisan political purposes is quite simply "anti-Christ."
But back to Haitian immigrants in Springfield, OH, and following Jesus and biblical faith. I have to be concise. There is no way to appeal to the Bible to justify an “anti-immigrant” position on anything. The Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament consistently teach us to “welcome the immigrant,” to treat them with compassion and love, to remember that our own ancestors (both the people of Israel and most of us as citizens of the U.S.) were also immigrants, many of whom faced extremely dangerous and challenging situations and journeys, and to treat each other the way we’d like to be treated. To regard immigrants (those here legally or not) as dangerous thugs and rapists and criminals who are going to pollute and corrupt and threaten our country is completely outside the realm of what Scripture teaches us. There’s just no way around this folks. That kind of disrespectful and judgmental rhetoric is profoundly antithetical to biblical faith. And it's based on falsehoods and generalizations that simply aren't accurate. If you’d like to read a rather thorough account of what Scripture says about immigration, here is a link to a chapter given to this in the 2020 publication of a book called, Christians Against Christianity by biblical scholar Rev. Dr. Obery Hendricks.
If you’re interested in some facts and faithful responses to many of the anti-immigrant talking points and lies that are flying around in this political campaign season, here’s a link to a 25 minute video that our Wisconsin Conference Immigration Justice Working group held earlier this year featuring our friend Pastor Doug Pagitt of www.votecommongood.org. I hosted and helped organize this zoom meeting and edited the recording.
But 2 things very quickly in closing. First, one of the greatest problems of Vance’s and Trump’s lies about Haitians eating pets is that it takes the focus off of what could be a much more important discussion that could actually address some of the complex challenges regarding immigration. I have no doubt that having 15,000 or so Haitian immigrants come to a city of about 50,000 people is a hugely impactful and challenging thing for that town. There may be legitimate concerns and pragmatic issues to address regarding education, social services, and community dynamics. How could there not be? EVERY ethnic and cultural group that has come to this country (or any country) in large numbers has faced and at times contributed to significant challenges, obstacles, conflicts, and resistance. Just about every immigrant group faced trouble and complexity in the process of becoming established as U.S. citizens (the Chinese, Japanese, Italians, and Irish to name just a few). Some of the challenges were and are connected to things like prejudice and racism and hatred of “the other.” But not all are. There are legitimate difficulties when it comes to demographic changes and cultural assimilation. We need to face these real challenges in creative and compassionate and just ways. Fake and sensationalized lying about people eating pets distracts our attention, blurs our focus, and prevents us from having the meaningful conversations we actually need to have.
But lastly, as a follower of Jesus and one who seeks Truth in and through the Bible, what is ALWAYS missing from our public conversations about immigrants is a basic acknowledgment of them as children of God, made in God’s image, worthy of dignity and respect, who have their own stories and often tragic reasons for fleeing from their homeland and seeking refuge and hope in the U.S. No one is simply a demographic category. Every human is a child of God and needs to be treated as such. We are NEVER given an excuse or reason as followers of Jesus to dehumanize or objectify a fellow human--a child of God. Never. And as Jesus told us in Matthew 25, the way we treat an immigrant or refugee is the way we treat Christ.
So next time we hear the word “immigrant” used by a politician, let’s be thinking, and maybe even say out loud, “Immigrant? Oh, you mean those children of God whom we are called to treat with dignity and compassion?" It would be a step in the direction of a more faithful conversation. Or maybe it would just prevent or put an end to a conversation that is better not to have at all.
Hope to see you soon all you beloved children of God,
Pastor Bryan
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